COEngineer
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2020 CO hunt brochures are out
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AvidIndoorsman
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Big Game
Not really a big change...
... so Bear licenses got even stupider... for the love of... this is ridiculous
Not really a big change...
... so Bear licenses got even stupider... for the love of... this is ridiculous
AvidIndoorsman
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So say I have some private land in unit 41... I can kill 3 bears a year on the same day... but one of them has to be archery or muzzy?
Bear 1. Limited License
Bear 2. Add on over the counter Archery
Bear 3. Private Land only
All have the exact same dates.
2019 draw odds
Bear 1. Limited License
Bear 2. Add on over the counter Archery
Bear 3. Private Land only
All have the exact same dates.
2019 draw odds
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COEngineer
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Why do you think this is stupid or "stupider"? I think the intent is to harvest more bears. Their population has taken off lately and between people/bear conflicts and payouts for bear-damage claims ($300k is the number I heard), CPW is trying to encourage more harvest.
AvidIndoorsman
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It's insanely complicated... there are 7 hunt codes...
Why not make most of the state OTC bear Sept 2 - Nov 22, your tag is good in every unit colored in the map below.
Our bear harvest is low, because it's heinously complicated. Literally no other western state does this crap and none of them have over harvest of bears.
It's clearly not about the money we dropped the NR license to $100 it's barely more than a resident license.
I've written all of the commissioners 4 different times about this...
Seriously is there an example in any state in the country for any game where you can hold an archery and a rifle tag for the same species, in the same unit, with the exact same dates.
COEngineer
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It's fair point, but not something that affects many people (very few people even want to shoot one), so it's not going to get much attention. You keep after it, though, if it's important to you.
Early May.
the commission meeting to approve the quotas is may 7-8
i can't recall - do we at least get a chance to see the proposed quotas before the application deadline?
Application and correction deadline is April 7th
Dinkshooter
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I think all he is trying to say is more people would shoot them and the incidental harvest would go up if it wasn't so complicated and people could just have a valid bear tag in their pocket all fall.
bit of a shame.
I’ve never really been worried before. But the season shift has me not wanting to be surprised at a 3rd season deer tag that changes draw hierarchy by one point due to them lopping, say 200 tags cause of the later date
Aren’t we all! I think this year will be a tester and good idea of what Is to come but it will probably change more when it kicks out another week again next year
I wish they would make the NR bear tag like $50 for people that hold a valid deer or elk tag. $100 is still a lot just to have an incidental tag in ur pocket. They’d prly sell a lot more tags and get the bears a little more under control.
It is complicated for sure. If they really want to knock the population down just make the season longer. I always think about picking up a bear tag during my elk and deer hunts but I never do because I have limited time and want to focus on the elk/deer.
AvidIndoorsman
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Im not going to say it isn’t, but they did nock it down from $351... and they didn’t make the resident tag cheaper.
AvidIndoorsman
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It’s already as long as constitutionally allowed. We can’t have a spring season, and the earliest the fall season can start is Sept 2nd. They make the tags overlap the deer and elk seasons and not in the weeks in between as that would put hunters in the field during the “breaks” and thereby would counteract any benefits gained by those breaks. The problem is to hunt the full season for bears you have to buy two tags, which most folks, esp NR aren’t going to do.
So here is my example from this year and why the season structure is problematic.
I'm a bit of a bear nut, to the point that I did fly in AK bear hunt. I would happily take a bear every year.
This year I applied for a limited bear license in one unit, a deer tag in that same unit, and then an elk tag in a different part of the state. I drew the bear tag and elk tag but not my deer tag. My bear tag was an A tag and the unit I was elk hunting was an A tag so I couldn't get the OTC with caps license for that unit.
My plan original plan was to hunt the bear tag in sept, elk, then deer later on. Since I didn't draw the deer tag I hit the leftover list and was able to get a deer tag in Sept. Due to the timing and because it was a decent deer tag that I wanted to dedicate some time too, I didn't get to hunt my limited season bear tag.
My deer tag was across the highway from the unit I had a bear tag for... and of course I saw a bear about .5 miles from the car on my pack out from my deer hunt that I could and would have shot if I had had a tag. That unit was a B limited license that had leftovers so I could have purchased a tag, I was kicking myself that I didn't, but getting two limited season bear tags seemed excessive...
To top things off I saw another bear during my elk hunt that I also could and would have taken.
The nature of CO seasons is that you focus on one species at a time and bears fall by the wayside as incidental take... even for bear nuts like me.
CPW has responded to this by "increasing opportunity" now you can get 3 bear tags... no one is going to kill three bears in a year. The problem is that the complicated regulations make it difficult to take bears incidentally, and the "added opportunity" does nothing to address this and just makes the regulations increasingly complicated.
What we need is hunters to be able to purchase 1 tag and use that tag whenever they are out hunting big game in the fall, that's how every other western state handles bear hunting.
If a region has a below objective bear pop don't include that unit.
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